Maria Latumahina
Maria Latumahina now lives in Glasgow but comes from the South of West Papua, where her mother, who is from the Marind people, lives.
She has been helping community groups in West Papua to organise themselves to change the narrative and transform their development trajectory. The village of Okaba, a small costal town, near Merauke where Maria’s mother was born, is one among a very few who remain resistant and keen on setting up alternative survival strategies including by changing policy making processes.
Maria was born further west, in Sorong, spent her childhood on Gag island, in Raja Ampat and went to university in East Java. She came back home to West Papua in 2001 and since then, has never stopped working with Indigenous groups and local NGOs as well as with national networks. She moved to Glasgow in 2012 but remains working with people in West Papua.